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Macron wins strong parliamentary majority, estimates show

President Emmanuel Macron won a commanding majority in France's parliamentary election on Sunday, pollsters' estimates showed, sweeping aside mainstream parties and securing a powerful mandate to push through his pro-business reforms, Reuters reported.

The result, if confirmed, redraws France's political landscape, humiliating the Socialist and conservative parties which alternated in power for decades until Macron's election in May.

Three pollsters projected that Macron's Republic on the Move (LREM) and its Modem allies would win 355-365 seats in the 577-seat lower house, fewer than previously forecast.

They predicted the conservative Republicans and their allies would form the largest opposition bloc with 125-131 seats, while the Socialist Party, in power for the last five years, and its partners would secure 41-49 seats, their lowest ever in the postwar Fifth Republic.

"This is an opportunity for France. One year ago no one would have imagined such a political renewal," Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said in a statement.

Voter turnout was projected to be a record low at about 42 percent.

The high abstention rate underlines that Macron will have to tread carefully with reforms in a country with muscular trade unions and a history of street protests that have forced many a past government to dilute new legislation.

Government spokesman Christophe Castaner said it signaled voters "had not wanted to hand Macron a blank check."